While Novell seems to be run by former IBM executives, it appears as though defecting Microsoft seniors end up all over the place. In fact, a later post will continue an existing and ongoing discussion about VMware, whereas this one looks at two new appointments of Microsoft executives who jumped ship.
Lisa Utzschneider, who worked at Microsoft for 10 years, will become senior vice president of national ad sales for Amazon, the Post said citing e-mails announcing her departure.
A 25-year industry veteran, Poole most recently served as corporate vice president of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Group, which focuses on IT technology needs in underserved countries. He was also active in the company's involvement with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization and helped bring Windows to OLPC machines.
Poole, 47, said he and his wife will remain in their Bellevue home.
Each product line has accounted for roughly half of NComputing's shipments in achieving 1 million unit sales, Drukker said.
Dukker says about 40 per cent of NComputing's customers have chosen Linux (the company uses Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or SuSE) and the remainder have gone with Windows on the host. He is careful to specify that he has no religion when it comes to the operating system - it is entirely the buyer's choice. (Of course, if he were not offering the GNU/Linux option, then he wouldn't have got a run here).
The NComputing system cuts costs tremendously. The cost per child of each NComputing system, for seven users, is $70 each, in a system running at just 1 watt per user.
Thin client technology is not new - it has been used widely in banking and sectors which want to avoid placing sensitive information on individual PCs.
NComputing has also been deploying its technology in factories where operating conditions are not suitable for ordinary PCs.
The Republic of Macedonia is one of the poorer nations in southeastern Europe to come from the break-up of the former Yugoslav republic. But thanks to Linux, they do have the wherewithal to get a computer to every student in the country, thanks to a program launched in 2005 known as the "Computer for Every Child" (CEC) project.
A batch of 7,000 PCs with Ubuntu Linux have been sent to Macedonian schools, the first of a collection that Ubuntu sponsor Canonical expects will reach 20,000.
NComputing announced this week that its multi-user virtual desktop software and low-cost virtual PC terminals will be used to equip every school child in the Republic of Macedonia, formerly part of Yugoslavia, with a Linux desktop.